There are two of these, one on either side of the ship. Each consists of a small hangar, open to space at the rear. The front wall contains an air lock. Docked against the wall on either side of this is a row of escape pods, which can be accessed from the interior of the ship or, with a space suit, from within the hanger, through hatches in their sides. All hatches have both electronic and manual controls, in case of a complete power failure. In the centre of the hangar is an empty space, just large enough to accommodate a small spacecraft.

Subcommander Keris manoeuvred her shuttle through the opening of the tiny hangar. As she had come within short-range sensor range, she had been able to detect life-sign readings from what she had initially assumed were the crew, although she was somewhat perplexed by the vesselâ€™s virtual lack of any power signature. But as she came within visual distance, she noticed there was a second, far smaller ship, docked with it, and she realised it must be a derelict hulk that was being investigated by outsiders. A salvage team, maybe? Well, even a derelict ship might have parts for repairing her damaged shuttle. And a salvage team would probably include engineers.

But one thing bothered her. Neither the lifeless ship nor the docked vessel were of designs that she had ever seen before. They certainly didnâ€™t look Romulan. But what would alien ships be doing well within Romulan space without an escort?

A quick last minute sensor sweep had informed her that not one but two unidentified small ships were in fact present, the second one inside the main hangar, so as a precautionary measure she had brought her shuttle in out of sight of both of them, and, as luck would have it, found what appeared to be a small auxiliary docking bay. There was barely room for her craft between the tiny pods that lined the walls. She surmised that this must be an emergency escape facility. It was also unpressurised. Fortunately, the emergency supplies on board the shuttle included an environmental suit.

A few minutes later, Keris descended from her shuttleâ€™s exit hatch in the rather ungainly suit and stepped cautiously on to the deck. To her surprise, despite the lack of atmosphere, there was gravity. Releasing the flashlight that she had clipped on to the suit, she switched it on and swept the beam around the bay. It took her only a second to locate the airlock - she had already spotted it before in the illumination from the shuttleâ€™s navigational lights â€“ but she paused to check the rest of the chamber for unseen hazards. Satisfied that there was nothing untoward in here with her, she slowly she made her way towards the air lock.

She wasnâ€™t at all surprised when the doors failed to respond to the switch. But if this was an emergency facility, she figured there must be a manual override somewhere. After all, what use was an emergency exit that couldnâ€™t be operated during a power failure? Sure enough, behind a panel she found precisely what she was looking for: a somewhat archaic-looking wheel. But it turned easily enough, and gradually the airlock door slid back into its housing. A slight hiss as the first millimetres of an opening appeared testified to the fact that there had been an atmosphere on the other side. Once the gap was wide enough, Keris slipped inside and found the corresponding control inside the airlock. As soon as the door was sealed tight once again she heard the sound of air flooding into the compartment, and a quick check with a tricorder assured her that it was breathable, if a little stale.

Good, she thought to herself. I can dispense with this cumbersome suit.

Quickly, she divested herself of the environmental suit, folded it up neatly in a corner, and laid the helmet on top. Hopefully it would remain undiscovered until she returned. Whether or not she was able to find parts to repair her ship, she was first and foremost a Romulan officer, and it was her duty to find out what was going on here and, if necessary, find a way to get a message back to Fleet command or the Tal Shiar. Now she set about opening the inner door. As she turned the wheel with her left hand, she held her disruptor at the ready in her right. It was set to kill. If whoever was on board turned out to be hostile, she didnâ€™t want to leave anyone unconscious, only to have them wake up later and come after her.

Finally, the door was open enough to let her through. Picking up her flashlight and tricorder from where she had left them by the suit, she peered through into a long, deserted corridor.

When Keris finally reached the air lock to the little hangar where she had left her shuttle, she was disappointed, but not entirely surprised, to see that the dromes had been thorough and her environmental suit had been found removed, as she had feared. She'd probably have to return to the med-bay and see if one of the teleporters could get on board on her behalf, she figured. She was also a little fearful for the shuttle itself if the dromes had been poking around out there. Admittedly it was highly unlikely they could get on board, but it wasn't unfeasible that they could have decided to dispose of it altogether and she had been relieved to see through the small porthole in the outer hatch that her ship was still there. She had been about to turn round and head back, when she noticed a status display beside the outer hatch seemed to be indicating that the bay beyond it was pressurised. Had the dromes really gone to the trouble of creating a force-field to maintain an atmosphere in a place like this? Why would they want to? She couldn't see anything unusual through the porthole, but then the nose of her own shuttle was filling most of the view. Did she dare trust the reading?

Figuring that she could probably manage to close the hatch again before it had opened enough for her to be sucked out if there were a sudden decompression, she tentatively tried the control to open it (remembering that previously it hadn't worked anyway and she'd had to open it manually). A quiet hum emanated and the hatch slid open without any untoward side-effects.

Keris stepped out into the tiny hangar. All seemed as it should be as she disabled her ship's security locks and lowered the ramp to board. She had just stepped on to the ramp when something began nagging at her brain. She was sure something hadn't been quite right about the view as she had been standing beside the shuttle. She stepped off again and looked around. Everything still looked normal, as far as she could tell. Then it suddenly struck her what it was. The far wing simply didn't look right from where she was standing. The crossed underneath the craft for a better look and then it became abundantly clear - the left nacelle was completely missing!

"Those bastards!" she exclaimed.

Her ship might have been heavily damaged and in no fit condition for more than short hops but it had at least been flyable. It could have been used for shuttle runs to and from a planet from orbit if required - and with the Ehni currently out of commission, that might have been an invaluable role. But now - most probably the nacelle was in pieces somewhere for analysis, but even if it wasn't, she doubted if anyone had the materials and know-how about Romulan engine design to re-attach it reliably. She was more than capable of fixing a lot of things on Romulan fleet vessels, but even she wouldn't feel confident about equipping warp nacelles. She had no personal attachment to that particular ship - it wasn't like the Ehni for M - but even so this discovery left her feeling agitated and angry.

She stomped up the ramp and channelled her rage into dragging everything useful out of lockers and hurling it into a pile on a bench in the rear, that doubled up as a narrow bunk. If the ship was going to be permanently unusable, there was no point in storing anything on board. By the time she had finished she had accumulated four disruptor pistols, two rifles, two tricorders, a uniform designed for someone much larger than herself, enough emergency rations to keep one person alive for about a month, four flashlights, an assortment of electronic components and a few tools, together with Romulan fleet data PAD, a field med-kit and a holdall. She loaded everything into the holdall, picked up her scavenged toobox and departed for the med-bay. It was only as she was entering the air lock once again that she remembered she had intended to look for a kitchen and possibly return to the food dispensor on the Main Deck, so she fished out the PAD that she'd started up. She was pleased to see that the Realm's now fully working central computer recognised her from her earlier use of a PAD, and she was able to query the location of a kitchen. There was one, but it looked rather small. She doubted if it would be well equipped, but it was probably worth making a detour to check - being able to eat while on board was a rather high priority after all.

"To be honest, I've never been here before. If memory, serves though..." M paused as he, Zabesh and the rest of Zabesh's squad came up to the Escape Pod docking bay doors. He instructed an exterior hullplate to close and seal the exterior from space--normally used for maintenance purposes--and waited while the computer complied. "...we should should find a mostly dismantled Romulan shuttlecraft."

"Dismantled, sir?" Zabesh questioned. "Very badly damaged?"

M hesitated thoughtfully before answering. "Well I guess it was, but that wasn't the reason it was dismantled."

"Why was it dismantled?"

"You remember those Dromeanthropes I was telling you about?"

"The reptilian species, sir."

"Those are the ones. Apparently they were taking apart. That's the assumption Keris made, anyway. I don't know who else could have done it or when, so I as far as I'm concerned that must have been it."

"How was it originally damaged, sir?" Zabesh's demeanour and voice remained professional and vigilant, though M couldn't help thinking his large, wide eyes betrayed only youth and curiosity. Then again, judging from his slightly-off physical traits--the nearly iridescent jet black hair, the slightly too green olive-tanned skin--maybe he wasn't exactly readable by standard sebacianoid measures.

"That would be a question for Keris." A light blinked green and a muted little chirrup of an alarm indicated they could enter the space. "I wouldn't recommend getting excited about asking her though," M said as he opened the doors. "The dismantling is a recent development and she's still fairly upset about it." M stopped short, the others with him doing likewise just inside the dock. "Oh." M raised his eyebrows in interest at the neat and tidy row of untouched escape pods and the mostly empty space in the centre. There was only a collection of what looked to be scrap metal there. "I suppose...she...entered through the similar pod on the other side of the ship," M offered. "I was so sure it was this one though."

Most of Zabesh's men and women moved past him to begin inspecting the pods themselves while he and another poked around at the metal in the centre area. "What's this from?"

M shook his head. "I have no idea. You're welcome to do whatever you want with it."

Zabesh knelt down to turn over one of smaller sections. It was green and very thick, with a slight curve in the mostly straight plane. Feeling its weight, the corporal only lifted it part way and looked under it. Satisfied, he let it clunk back down to the ground loudly, making sure his fingers weren't in danger of being smashed. "No sir, I trust you. Judging from the sheer size of the ship layout you showed me, seems pretty plausible you wouldn't have any idea what's been going on here."

"Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard. Please Report to Surgery." Zabesh and M exchanged interested and anticipatory looks at the sound of Richard's voice, waiting for more. "So... For that Metaphor, Emeris is Doctor Howard, Keris is Doctor Fine, and Shaina is Doctor Howard. And Surgery is the Bridge. So... basically, could you three come to the bridge? Actually, everyone not keeping the ship from blowing up could probably come. Thank you."

M nodded, mostly to himself. "Sounds like I am needed. I'm going to assume that by 'everyone' he meant everyone on board before we contacted the Pinafore--the bridge isn't that large of a place."

"Affirmative. We shall proceed down this deck from here with our search, by your allowance, sir."

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